Olof & Katharina

Who were Olof and Katharina?
Olof Svensson was born in Fryksdalen in Värmland in 1828, and by 1854 he had moved to Bergsjö in Hälsingland, where he was active in the rapidly expanding sawmill industry.
During his initial time in Hälsingland, Olof lodged with Pehr Jonsson, a crofter, in Elfsund, Bergsjö. The eldest daughter in the house, Katharina, was born in 1833.
Olof and Katharina Svensson were married in 1857. Olof quickly progressed in the sawmill industry, and eventually became partner and manager of Gällsta sawmill. In 1857, Olof sold his interest in the sawmill and purchased the Hintsa farmhouse in Raisio outside Turku. The family emigrated to Finland and disembarked in Turku in October 1875. The family farmhouse Hintsa, along with Olof and Katharina and their 11 children, formed the foundation of a large extended family where the family unity was especially strong.
The memory of Olof and Katharina and the unity between their descendants is maintained within the family association.

Olof

Olof was born on 10th September 1828 at Tömtfall in Bada village in Fryksände parish, in the north of Fryksdalen in Värmland. The area is located by the southern border with Finnskog, i.e. the area where Finnish immigrants settled in the 16th and 17th centuries. The farmhouse was poor, and the Bada factory was nearby. This meant that there were also gentlefolk living nearby, and already in his youth, Olof had something to aspire to, and this may be one of the explanations for his strong will to move up in life.
His parents and paternal grandparents were also born in Fryksdalen; his father Sven Olsson in 1796 and his mother Karin Persdotter in 1786. Sven came from Eastern Ämtervik, which is slightly closer to the south of Fryksdalen (where Selma Lagerlöf’s Mårbacka is incidentally also located). Olof had two siblings; his older sister Katrina born in 1817, his older brother Per born in 1825, and his younger brother Nils born in 1830. Nils died young and Per moved to Norway, while Katrina was the one to eventually take over the farmhouse with her husband.
His father Sven Olsson became owner of the recently established farmhouse Tömtfall at the beginning of the 1820s. New farmhouses were established at the outskirts of the great old estates, and Tömtfall was one such farmhouse. Apparently Olof’s father Sven was the first owner of the farmhouse, and consequently the farmhouse stayed within the family throughout its history until 2010 when the heirs of Gustav Svensson (1922-2009), great grandson of Olof’s sister Katrina, sold it.
Not much is known about Olof’s youth. He is not known to have gone to school. Elementary school was introduced in Sweden in 1842, but at that point it was already time for 14-year old Olof to go out to work.  He likely worked as a farmhand at home at the farmhouse and the neighbouring farmhouses as well as delivering timber to the Bada mill. Subcontract work for the mills was often an important part of the activities of the surrounding farmhouses. Eventually Olof worked as a navvy at the first railway works in Sweden and he is likely to have learnt to read and write from his colleagues. He is described as an imposing fellow. He was cheerful and with a zest for life and ready to take on everything life had to offer. He was apparently also successful, as he advanced to “faktor”, i.e. foreman.
Olof’s work would at times take him to Hälsingland, and in 1854, at the age of 26, Olof moved permanently to Bergsjö in Hälsingland. It was the great expansion in the sawmill industry, which has been compared to the gold rush of Klondike, that attracted Olof to Hälsingland. He was hired as a rafting foreman at the Stocka company.
During his initial time in Hälsingland, Olof lodged with the crofter Pehr Jonsson in Elfsund, Bergsjö. The eldest daughter in the house, Katharina, was born in 1833.

Katharina
Katharina Pehrsdotter was born on 20th October 1833 in Elfsund (Älvsund) in Bergsjö parish in Hälsingland. Elfsund was quite a remote place towards the inland. Her father, Pehr Jonsson, born in 1810, was the occupier of the croft Elfsund 1, and her mother Karin was from the neighbouring parish of Hassela. Pehr’s father Jonas Pehrsson Schalberg was a farmer in Elfsund, and his paternal grandfather Per Olsson Schalberg was a soldier in the Hälsingland regiment, who took part in the 1757-60 battles in Pomerania. Among the ancestors was also Erik Olofsson, also called “Strömmings”, born of Finnish parents around 1580. He is mentioned as a “resident Finn” in Vrångtjärn and his homestead grew large. The forest area is said to have consisted of 1800 hectares.
Katharina was the eldest child and she had seven siblings. The family was poor. The estate after Pehr’s death in 1888 amounted to 198.32 Swedish Crowns in assets, and 27.50 Swedish Crowns in debts. The farmhouse had already been taken over in 1864 by Katharina’s brother, Pehr Persson, also known as Bergsjö-Pelle, known as a lay preacher. The brothers Jonas and Hans emigrated to North America in 1865, as did their sister Margareta in 1867. The brothers Erik and Anders had already passed away, so aside from Katharina and Per, the youngest daughter Anna Brita, born in 1860, was still living in the native area.

Olof and Katharina
While Olof was living with the family, he and Katharina took a liking to each other. This resulted in a son, Sven Petter (Svante), born in December 1856. The wedding between Olof and Katharina took place on 18/4/1857. For the time being, the family stayed in Elfsund, and their daughter Mathilda was born there in January 1858.
Olof was now a rafting foreman at the Stocka company, and he was hard-working and aspirational and advanced within the company; already in 1858 the family moved to the farmhouse Smens in Elfbohed, also known as Stockaviken, in Harmånger. The family was starting to join the gentlefolk and could afford to keep servants. In 1864, the family moved to the farmhouse Åvik in a more prosperous part of Bergsjö. Åvik was Olof’s official residence and signified a further step upward, socially and economically. A sign of this was that Olof hired a governess for the family, Miss Forsell from Stockholm; the brood had now increased with Erika, Karl, Alma, Ida and Alfred. Miss Forsell was by all accounts a central figure within the family and especially skilled at teaching music.
Olof was known for being efficient and hard working. He received an offer from wholesaler August Möller from Stockholm and factory owner Edvard Frisk from Hudiksvall to become the managing director and partner with a share of a third in Gällsta sawmills. He would pay for his share over time through labour. This was a good arrangement for Olof. In 1870, the family moved to the Gällsta farmouse with everything from horses to cows and produce from the farm.  Gällsta is located near the sea in Gnarp parish, to the north of Bergsjö.
Miss Forsell did not join the family in Gällsta, and the older children were sent to school in Hudiksvall, but Mathilda had to leave already in the following year when her mother Katharina suffered an accident. She received burns from an oil lamp that she was extinguishing, and was seriously injured. She spent eight months in bed rest and lost the use of her right arm.
Three further children were born at Gällsta: Nils, Anna and Herman. There were around ten staff at Gällsta; maids, farmhands, a seamstress and a driver. The family mixed with many people of rank in Bergsjö, Gnarp and Jättendal.
Olof also suffered an accident – his carriage turned over on the way home from a St. Knut’s Day ball in Jättendal and he split his forehead open on an icicle. Subsequently, he came down with erysipelas of the face and was delirious for nine days and came near death. According to Mathilda, “we all thought that he was not all there afterwards”.
Already in 1875, Olof decided to sell his share in the sawmill. Whether this had anything to do with the accident or because the sawmill industry was developing in such a way that Gällsta’s competitiveness was threatened in the long run is not known, but the time was probably well chosen. The buyer was Adolf Unger who wanted Olof to stay on as managing director, but Olof declined.
In the spring of 1875 Olof travelled to Stockholm to purchase his own farmhouse. He realised that the prices in the area were so high that his money would not go far enough. He then saw a listing in the paper for the Hintsa farmhouse in Raisio outside Turku being offered at a low price. Olof quickly made the decision to buy it. It is alleged that he never even saw the house before he bought it, but others say that he had gone over to view it.
The family consequently emigrated to Finland and disembarked in Turku in October 1875. Mathilda, 17, describes their arrival: “It was after a rough journey that we on 8th October 1875 landed here in Turku, where everything smelled of onions and Russians.”
Mathilda writes: “The farmhouse was in terrible condition and I do think my father regretted his decision many times, as he became completely emaciated during the first year. We were very sad to have had to come here, and I think my father regretted it many a time, because as generous and happy as he was in Sweden, he was equally tight-fisted and peevish here. Mother was happier, because she had so much work at home.”
Hintsa was a property with a long history. The farmhouse is first mentioned in 1390, and around 1450 it was donated to the Naantali convent. A complete owners’ register from 1540 is available. The original farmhouse, that had been a “rusthåll”, the Nordic version of a vassal, was purchased for the taxable estate in 1759. During the 19th century the farmhouse was owned alternatingly by farmers and people of rank. The current main building, finished in empire style, was completed in 1837.
It took some time for Olof and his family to start feeling at home at Hintsa. As a result of hard labour, the condition of Hintsa was restored and Olof’s and Katharina’s lives as landowners stabilised. Eventually they acquired a rather lively circle in Turku, and most of the children married Turku natives.
Stories tell that Olof liked to give orders and direct people. When the workers noticed that their master was approaching they used the code “kuu nousee” (the moon is rising). Aside from farming, Olof also dealt in timber, with varying degrees of success. He liked to take long walks, and kept in shape by chopping spruce twigs for his “silppu” (shredder). At six o’clock every evening he would have a hot rum toddy. Olof was interested in history, especially in Napoleon. His favourite literature was an extensive biography of Napoleon consisting of around ten volumes.
Katharina gave birth to an eleventh child in 1879, at nearly 46 years of age. The girl was christened Thyra. Katharina, with her injured arm, was quite well until the 1890s, when she started having severe rheumatic pains in her hip. Her legs became paralysed and she had to sit still for five years.
In 1889, the eldest son Svante took over the farm and bought out his siblings. Olof died in 1901 and Katharina a year after.
The children met varying fates but the unity among the next generation, the cousins, was also good. Hintsa was like a second home where the family gathered for events like Christmas celebrations.
Olof and Katharina’s descendants currently consist of around 400 people living in Finland, Sweden, Norway, the US, Canada, France, England, Austria, Spain etc.